{
  "slug": "hardcore-punk",
  "name": "Hardcore Punk",
  "aliases": [
    "hardcore",
    "dc hardcore",
    "straight edge",
    "dischord"
  ],
  "description": "American punk taken to its logical end from 1980: faster, shorter, shouted, and run entirely on self-released records, borrowed halls and a touring network the bands built themselves because nobody else would have them.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Washington DC and Los Angeles",
    "year": 1980
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "punk",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/punk/",
      "inherited": "Everything, accelerated and stripped. Hardcore keeps punk's chord vocabulary and its independence and discards the pop tunes, the art-school irony and any song longer than ninety seconds."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 160,
    "max": 250
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-31",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/hardcore-punk/",
  "trackCount": 8,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "black-flag--rise-above",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/black-flag--rise-above/",
      "title": "Rise Above",
      "artist": "Black Flag",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/black-flag/",
      "year": 1981,
      "label": "SST",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Henry Rollins's first record with the band, and the closest hardcore came to an anthem it could admit to. Greg Ginn's guitar is atonal and completely deliberate about it.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-eighties",
          "name": "The Eighties",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-eighties/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Black%20Flag%20Rise%20Above",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=wDUYCyajDcs",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "minor-threat--straight-edge",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/minor-threat--straight-edge/",
      "title": "Straight Edge",
      "artist": "Minor Threat",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/minor-threat/",
      "year": 1981,
      "label": "Dischord",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Forty-six seconds that accidentally founded a movement Ian MacKaye spent the next decade disowning. He was describing himself, not issuing instructions.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-eighties",
          "name": "The Eighties",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/the-eighties/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Minor%20Threat%20Straight%20Edge",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=gsAu-nOg3Tw",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "bad-brains--pay-to-cum",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/bad-brains--pay-to-cum/",
      "title": "Pay to Cum",
      "artist": "Bad Brains",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/bad-brains/",
      "year": 1980,
      "label": "Bad Brains",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Four Black jazz musicians from Washington playing faster and more precisely than anyone in America. Ninety seconds, and no band has convincingly matched the execution.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Bad%20Brains%20Pay%20to%20Cum",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Bad%20Brains%20Pay%20to%20Cum",
          "exact": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "black-flag--nervous-breakdown",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/black-flag--nervous-breakdown/",
      "title": "Nervous Breakdown",
      "artist": "Black Flag",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/black-flag/",
      "year": 1978,
      "label": "SST",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Two years early and already fully formed. Keith Morris sounds genuinely unwell, which is the performance rather than the affliction.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Black%20Flag%20Nervous%20Breakdown",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ctUiBVT142Y",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "minor-threat--filler",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/minor-threat--filler/",
      "title": "Filler",
      "artist": "Minor Threat",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/minor-threat/",
      "year": 1981,
      "label": "Dischord",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "MacKaye complaining that a friend has found religion, in under two minutes, with a bass tone like a dropped plank. Dischord's whole aesthetic in one cut.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Minor%20Threat%20Filler",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=m3mUUupDtVA",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "suicidal-tendencies--institutionalized",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/suicidal-tendencies--institutionalized/",
      "title": "Institutionalized",
      "artist": "Suicidal Tendencies",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/suicidal-tendencies/",
      "year": 1983,
      "label": "Frontier",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A spoken monologue about a boy whose parents think he is on drugs when he only wanted a Pepsi. Hardcore's one genuinely funny classic, and it still lands.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Suicidal%20Tendencies%20Institutionalized",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Suicidal%20Tendencies%20Institutionalized",
          "exact": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "circle-jerks--wasted",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/circle-jerks--wasted/",
      "title": "Wasted",
      "artist": "Circle Jerks",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/circle-jerks/",
      "year": 1980,
      "label": "Frontier",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Thirty-six seconds. A life story told in a list, delivered by Keith Morris again after leaving Black Flag, and it is complete.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Circle%20Jerks%20Wasted",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2wKG8eu396w",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "fugazi--waiting-room",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fugazi--waiting-room/",
      "title": "Waiting Room",
      "artist": "Fugazi",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/fugazi/",
      "year": 1988,
      "label": "Dischord",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "MacKaye afterwards, with a bassline that grooves and a band who charged five dollars a show for a decade on principle. Hardcore growing up without softening.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fugazi%20Waiting%20Room",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=C3LXkdpHNOQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}